Our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt (527-65)
Isaiah 45:11-17; Genesis 22:1-18; Proverbs 17:17-18:5
Great Fast Day 33. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read Proverbs 17:17-18:5
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
How often is it that even the most sincere, as well as the most selfish, of our thoughts and intentions lead us into feelings of emptiness instead of fulfilment, discontent instead of happiness, failure instead of accomplishment, anguish instead of peace. The journey through the Great Fast is not so mush to make us feel that we are the worst and lowliest of persons as it it is to make us aware of the danger and futility of trusting only in ourselves. It is a call for us to be honest not only with God but also with ourselves.
The Holy Great Forty Day Fast is a journey to help us see that reliance on ourselves and how we think or feel about something so often leads to less than desired results, to temporary rather than permanent peace, joy, and contentment. Saint Basil the Great call this a “false glory” of humanity. The true glory of mankind—the achievement of peace within ourselves—comes from allowing our thought to be led, guided, and united with Christ, the Wisdom of God. It is a “putting on of Christ” in all that we do. It is an acknowledgement of our reliance upon God to help us achieve what everyone most desire: life, salvation, true inner peace.
From today’s reading from Proverbs, we read:
A man seeks a pretext when he wishes to separate from his friends,
But he shall be reproached at every opportunity.
Saint Basil outs it another way: “Among the gifts given to men, the greatest and most enduring seem to be wisdom and prudence… If they who have them have not also the Wisdom of God, all their gifts amount to nothing” (Homily 20). In both cases the message is clear. We need Jesus, the Wisdom of God, to heal us and make us compete. To ignore His advice is to amount to nothing, truly a false glory.
(Fr. Daniel Magulick, Journey Through the Great Fast, 54.)